Chef award sees first female winner in 50 years

A North Yorkshire chef has said she is "really proud" to be the first woman in 50 years to win a prestigious industry award.

Ruth Hansom, owner of Hansom Restaurant in Bedale, has been crowned the Craft Guild of Chefs' National Chef of the Year.

At Tuesday's grand final, Hansom went head-to-head with nine other chefs, all of whom are considered to be among the country's culinary elite.

Hansom, who had reached the final of the competition on two previous occasions, said she felt "great, really relieved" to have finally won.

The 31-year-old said: "It's my third time being in the final and I didn't want to have to go back next year - because I would have."

The journey to victory was a long one, beginning with a paper application, which Hansom said was the opportunity for chefs to "really get your personality in".

Forty chefs were then selected to cook at the semi-final in Sheffield, held on the hottest day of the year.

"It was quite sweaty", Hansom said.

After successfully reaching the final 10, Hansom and her fellow finalists competed for the top spot at cookery school Le Cordon Bleu London this week, where her winning three-course menu was brought to life.

Hansom's menu began with Isle of Mull scallop with girolle, kohlrabi and cobnut.

Her main course was Angus pure beef fillet, with braised cheek cottage pie, beef fat, kuri squash fondant, glazed veal sweetbread and tail-end tartare, and she finished with a dessert of Guanaja dark chocolate, olive oil and foraged bramble mille feuille.

Hansom said: "The standard was incredibly high, and it was an honour to cook alongside such talented chefs and an exceptional judging panel.

"It was certainly nerve-racking on the day, but I'm absolutely chuffed to be recognised by my peers and the industry."

Mark Birchall, chair of judges, said Hansom "stood out with a menu that showed confidence and skill".

He said: "Every dish delivered on flavour and the execution was consistently strong from start to finish… Ruth thoroughly deserves this title and I'm excited to see what comes next for her."

Hansom joins an alumni of previous National Chef of the Year winners including Gordon Ramsay, but is the first woman in five decades to take home first place.

She said the accolade was "quite insane", and she hoped her win would encourage other female chefs to enter.

Hansom said she had always been "very food-orientated", with her love of the culinary world dating back to her childhood.

Aged just 13, she asked for a polytunnel for Christmas and later "dug up" her mum's back garden.

"Probably to [mum's] dismay", Hansom said.

After discovering her love of cooking the food she had grown, Hansom moved to London as a teenager, where she later joined the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts apprenticeship programme at The Ritz.

She spent five years at The Ritz, climbing from commis chef to chef de partie, before taking on a number of head chef roles across the capital.

Hansom later led the kitchen at The Princess of Shoreditch, where her cooking earned three AA rosettes and inclusion in the Michelin Guide.

Hansom won the Craft Guild of Chefs' Young National Chef of the Year title in 2017, and went on to feature in a number of TV programmes including the BBC Two's Million Pound Menu and Great British Menu, as well as James Martin's Saturday Morning on ITV.

Hansom, originally from Darlington, eventually headed back to North Yorkshire where, following a stint at Swinton Estate, she opened her Bedale restaurant alongside her husband, Mark, in 2024.

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